Scorcese appreciation thread

If Travis Bickle had Twitter, would he be a lolcow?

  • Yes

    Votes: 16 84.2%

  • No

    Votes: 3 15.8%
  • Total voters
    19
Red Hood

Red Hood

Sidekick Lives Matter
kiwifarms.net
Joined
Jan 15, 2018
I sat down and watched Taxi Driver for the first time in years last night- literally hadn't seen it since my "Appreciating Cinema 101" or whatever it was called back in college. It's still an amazing and often imitated portrait of a particular place and time (specifically New York in the high crime days of the 70's). It manages to make the ugliness and run-down nature of New York's boroughs at the time beautiful in their own grimy way.

It also captures that, even post 60's unrest and knee-deep in filth, it was in some senses a more innocent time. Anyone watching today, if they met Travis Bickle, would be suspicious, we'd think something was off about him. A real life Travis Bickle might even be a potential lolcow. But he just kind of blends; Cybil Shepard's character doesn't seem to give it a thought going out for coffee with him. It's not until his idea of a date movie turns out to be a porno that she figures out Travis doesn't have all his marbles. Travis and his fellow taxi drivers almost serve as a medium between the seedy underbelly of New York and its leading figures. He shuttles hookers and johns around just as readily as a presidential hopeful. To borrow a phrase from the 30's musical 42nd Street, "where the underworld meets the elite".

Watching it has encouraged me to dig up a few more and watch them. Will have to wait on The Irishman since I don't use Netflix. I don't think all of Scorcese's movies are great (Shutter Island was nothing special in my book) but I think they're worth revisiting. Thought I'd make a thread to discuss the movies and the man himself. I love when he shows up as an interviewee on TCM or what have you because he's both insightful and passionate about films and film history.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
  • Informative
Reactions: Positron, albert chan, Ask Jeeves and 6 others
Was never a huge fan of his work though I've seen Taxi Driver and it is good.

For me the movie of his I really liked was Mad Dog and Glory. I'm a sucker for a romance.
 
  • Feels
Reactions: Megaroad 2012
As I've gotten older my appreciatiation for the man grows. Not only for his cinema output but for his dedication to the art and the medium. He owns or is involved with restoring and keeping for posterity one of the largest movie libraries in the world. All of his movies, even the bad ones(or to be kind not good ones) are personal to him and should be considered works of art.

It's a shame he won his Oscar for The Departed, not because it's bad but because it's very clearly a make-up Oscar for his previous work. He is one of the few directors that uses all of the available tools to help accentuate his movies points. Some people hate how long and excessive Wolf of Wallstreet is and I absolutely love that that's precisely the point. He manages to be meta without the pretentiousness that usually comes with it. Nobody saw his movie Silenced but it was a really artistic film that clearly meant a lot to him and dealt with some really deep questions to me that I think are worthy of thought in our time.

The Irishman confirmed he's still got it despite almost being 80. Hitchcock wasn't making good movies this late in his career and Hitchcock is a god in terms of movie making. His only flaw, imo, is an over reliance on the actors he grew up with but that's a personal squabble that I cant hold against him.

While imo Christopher Nolan and Quentin Tarantino are the last two directors that are keeping Hollywood afloat in terms of a singular vision and style Scorcese is the last director from his generation still around making great cinema and he will go down as one of the best American filmmakers in history.

He was 100% right about capeshit. I like capeshit too.
 
  • Like
  • Agree
  • Semper Fidelis
Reactions: Oats12345, Observerer, albert chan and 5 others
All the usual Scorsese classics are great, but I recommend watching some of his lesser known or forgotten ones, especially After Hours, The Last Temptation of Christ, Cape Fear, and Bringing Out the Dead. Everyone is suddenly hip to The King of Comedy because of its connection to Joker, but it's great too.
 
  • Like
  • Winner
Reactions: albertbrown26, BrunoMattei, South American Tapir and 5 others
MrTroll said:
The Last Temptation of Christ
Click to expand...
I’ve been trying to find a decent copy of that film on Blu-Ray, but it’s been damn near impossible. I’ve only seen that film once but it honestly left a profound impact on me that no other film has recently and I’ve already been dying to revisit it.

Also, can we talk about how that film triggered right-wing Catholic extremists into setting fire to a movie theater and it’s been banned in several countries (and still is in the Philippines and Singapore)?:
 
  • Feels
Reactions: Positron
Lensherr said:
I’ve been trying to find a decent copy of that film on Blu-Ray, but it’s been damn near impossible. I’ve only seen that film once but it honestly left a profound impact on me that no other film has recently and I’ve already been dying to revisit it.

Also, can we talk about how that film triggered right-wing Catholic extremists into setting fire to a movie theater and it’s been banned in several countries (and still is in the Philippines and Singapore)?:
Click to expand...

There's a Criterion Collection Bluray of it that's pretty good.

I'm not Catholic or Christian but the controversy over it never made any sense to me. It's probably the only Jesus movie I've ever watched that actually depicts him as someone charismatic, likeable and iconoclastic enough to convince a bunch of people to quit their jobs and follow him around the desert for years. Practically every other movie makes him out to be some rainbow-shitting Buddha figure with no personality or sense of agency whatsoever. The idea that anyone could relate to that on a personal level is something I can't understand at all.

I guess the big theological sticking point is that he has a delirious fantasy of marrying and living with Mary Magdalene as he is dying on the cross (hence "last temptation"), but so what? If he was completely immune to temptation then it wouldn't have made any sense for Satan to even bother trying to tempt him in the wilderness.

I could maybe understand the objections if Scorsese was some Bill Maher-esque smug atheist prick who just wanted to dunk on Christianity, but he's a lifelong Catholic himself and a lot of his other movies (i.e. Mean Streets, Raging Bull) contain overt Catholic imagery or themes. It's clearly something he cherishes and respects.
 
  • Winner
  • Semper Fidelis
Reactions: Oats12345, Lensherr and Syaoran Li
RumblyTumbly said:
I love his work. Goodfellas is my personal favorite, as its my favorite mafia movie ever.

But I LOVED Wolf of Wall Street too. That movie was a force of nature.
Click to expand...

It's the only movie of his starring DiCaprio that I like and holds up.

Casino is my personal favorite of his and then either Taxi Driver or Raging Bull.
 
Scorsese is one of the biggest supporters of world cinema. He does not hesitate to promote movies from foreign countries, and has helped many film institutes in funding restorations for older movies. I would argue that the Film Foundation is the most important thing to happen in the movie industry as it called for the need to restore older movies or else they'll be lost.
 
  • Informative
  • Agree
Reactions: Lensherr and Damien Thorne
There was a rumor that Martin Scorsese might make a biopic about Mike Tyson with Jamie Foxx.

Also, his Mean Streets film is under appreciated. It makes Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing look like an amateur film, which also makes sense when you realize that Spike was a student of Martin’s back when when he was in NYU.
 
  • Like
  • Semper Fidelis
  • Lunacy
Reactions: BrunoMattei, Michael Jacks0n and Syaoran Li
Lensherr said:
Also, can we talk about how that film triggered right-wing Catholic extremists into setting fire to a movie theater and it’s been banned in several countries (and still is in the Philippines and Singapore)?:
Click to expand...
Eh Christians are easy (and mostly safe) to rag on, especially these days. Get back to me when somebody makes "The Last Temptation of Muhammed."
 
  • Like
  • Agree
  • Informative
Reactions: Oats12345, BR55, Syaoran Li and 2 others
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back